In tonight’s edition: a newborn infection we still can’t prevent, a heart-disease wave building in plain sight, US depression that won’t lift, a country betting big on HPV shots—and an AI deciding what teens can ask about abortion.
THE NEWBORN GAP WE HAVEN’T FIXED // The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the state of Group B strep, a leading killer of newborns, and how antibiotics during labor don’t solve the whole problem. They say that vaccines in development could finally protect babies beyond birth. If they work, this would be one of the most meaningful maternal-infant prevention shifts in decades.
SIX IN TEN // By 2050, 6 in 10 women are projected to have cardiovascular disease—and it’s hitting younger women earlier. The American Heart Association says the drivers are structural: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and a prevention system that waits too long. As one cardiologist put it: “We’re taking care of heart attacks quite well, but we’re really not preventing any. And so we’re seeing more disease in younger people, which I think is a terrible trend. We can’t treat our way out of this; we have to prevent our way out of this.”
STUCK FOR FIVE YEARS // A study looking at 31,500 moms’ mental health data from the US, UK, and Australia found that women in the US see their postpartum depression symptoms barely budge over five years, unlike the U.K. and Australia. The explanation they offer is that this isn’t biological—it’s policy. Thin parental leave and childcare support may be extending suffering far beyond the newborn stage.
A COUNTRY-WIDE CANCER PREVENTION PLAN // As the US Senate grills a surgeon general candidate who dodged vaccine questions, India just cleared a free, nationwide HPV vaccine program for 14-year-old girls. This move could dramatically cut cervical cancer deaths.
WHO GETS TO ASK ABOUT ABORTION? // Mother Jones got leaked documents from Meta showing their AI chatbot restricts abortion and sexual-health info for teens. The guidance explicitly banned providing information “‘that helps a user obtain or carry out an abortion (such as ‘You can go to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion’), or providing users with locational information that could be used to obtain abortions. It also prohibits the chatbot from providing a ‘value judgement’ for or against abortion.”